David Lennon: Yankees GM Brian Cashman settles for half-measures at trade deadline, then calls up top prospect
Yankees GM Brian Cashman talks to reporters during spring training at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Fla., on Feb. 15, 2024. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
Over the span of five hours Monday, the Yankees went from their buzzkill trade deadline to just plain flatlining via a whiplash-inducing 13-7 loss to the Cardinals, a stunning defeat that even wiped out Luis Garcia Jr.’s home-run heroics in his pinstripe debut.
For all that general manager Brian Cashman failed to accomplish, however, he did have one card left to play, and that happened late Monday night with the decision to promote George Lombard Jr., a source confirmed. As expected, Cashman held tight to his No. 1 prospect — which is partly why neither Tarik Skubal, Adley Rutschman nor any other marquee name was imported to the Bronx — and calling up the future franchise shortstop apparently was part of his post-deadline makeover.
But Cashman didn’t stop with Lombard. He also ticketed Anthony Volpe for Triple-A Scranton, finally ending his gradually weakening 3 1/2-year grip on the shortstop position, and shipped Jasson Dominguez to the RailRiders, as well. That meant Spencer Jones is deservedly staying put as Cashman’s patience has run out with the other two for this playoff push.
Lombard, who turned 21 in June, was hitting .377 (20-for-53) with four doubles, two homers and a 1.081 OPS in 14 games at Scranton since coming off the IL (sprained fingers). With Monday’s master stroke, Cashman delivered the Yankees’ most exciting young prospect while dumping two of the team’s perpetually frustrating players, a welcome conversation-changer for a GM previously under siege for his deadline dud.
The Yankees tried to trade for Skubal, but the reigning back-to-back Cy Young winner instead was dealt to the Dodgers, who went all-in for this year’s three-peat bid.
Cashman also made a push for Rutschman, but the All-Star catcher ended up with the hard-charging Red Sox, who are growing larger by the minute in the Yankees’ rearview mirror.
So two of the biggest prizes at this deadline just happened to be acquired by two of the greatest threats to the Yankees’ chances at ending their 16-year championship drought.
And that’s not even counting the AL East-leading Rays, who will no doubt work their pitching magic to revive Freddy Peralta, picked up a productive catcher Cashman could have used in Liam Hicks and bolstered their bullpen with reliever Tyler Wells.
It’s not that Cashman flunked the deadline. But in coming away with what essentially are a pair of nice platoon pieces, slugging first baseman Garcia and glove-deficient outfielder Heliot Ramos, the Yankees didn’t behave like a $360 million team attempting to double-down on their World Series bet.
The Dodgers did, swiping Skubal. Even the Red Sox — dead and buried in late June — gladly shipped three of their top five prospects to Baltimore for Rutschman, an incredible impulse spend of organizational currency.
The Yankees? They chose to tread water, a half-measure strategy based on the belief that Garcia and Ramos could help resuscitate their lifeless offense long enough for the cavalry to return in Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Cody Bellinger.
Certainly a logical approach, but also underwhelming. Shouldn’t the Yankees be able to go toe to toe with anybody when it comes to securing the sport’s elite talent? At this deadline, Cashman was OK taking no for an answer.
On Skubal: “We talked to Detroit. They set a high price, and to be honest, we weren’t able to get them off of what they said might work. But at the same time, they were communicating that it also might not even win the day.”
Fair enough. But whiffing on Rutschman, and a catching upgrade in general, was inexplicable. This has been an area of need for the Yankees practically since Opening Day, and to emerge four months later empty-handed seems negligent. It didn’t help that the Twins (56-57) chose to become buyers at the deadline and kept their highly coveted catcher Ryan Jeffers. Or the perpetually awful Rockies (45-67) still had no intention of making the precocious Hunter Goodman available.
The Orioles dangling Rutschman, however, was a test — to see just how far a team was willing to go for a title shot. So in a season when the Red Sox fired their World Series-winning manager in late April, and needed a historic 28-5 surge to climb back to a wild-card spot, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow figured it was the right time to push all his prospect chips to the middle of the table. Cashman? Not so much.
On Rutschman: “We had many conversations with Baltimore but were unable to obviously meet the price. They did their business elsewhere and we kept grinding through it.”
Now that the deadline is over, the Yankees’ only recourse is hope. Stanton survived Monday’s live BP session against Carlos Rodon, but there’s still no timetable for him. As for Judge, we’re beginning to seriously doubt what impact — if any — he’ll have on the remainder of his season.
Cashman again was cagey Monday when discussing Judge’s prognosis, other than to say he’ll need another re-imaging of the fractured rib, but won’t tell us when that is. Asked if there was any concern about the Yankees captain making it back, Cashman hedged.
“It’s always possible that things don’t go the way you want,” Cashman said. “But we currently are still very optimistic that he’s going to return. There’s challenges with all that, too. While he’s returning, whenever that time frame is, ramping him up, getting his timing down, etc., etc. So I can’t rule out any of it.”
Cashman couldn’t trade for another Judge. But if the Yankees don’t get where they need to go this year, which is a minimum of making it to the World Series, this deadline could be their undoing.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
